We had church in the park today and unfortunately I had to work, so I missed it. Rats. I enjoy very much when we have church outdoors in one of our local parks. It's a public venue, so people can see the gathering as they stroll by and perhaps hear the word being discussed and studied.

I've seen people in the park playing with their children, or people by themselves stop and move over to the gathering to listen to the word or the worship music and even share in the barbecue or the games that take place afterward.

It's a small step, moving out from the confines of a building and into the outdoors where others can see and hear what is said of God and how His people relate to one another, but it's kind of a mirror to me of what we should be doing in our outreach to others in our daily lives.

We shouldn't be afraid of God's Word, of speaking it or sharing it. I'm not talking about clubbing people over the head with it. I was talking with a student I met in an online chat room who shared some things with me about witnessing and I remembered the people who most impacted me for Christ before I became a Christian, and after, to this day.

They were those people who lived their faith, not necessarily those who were in the Christian 'limelight' so to speak. They were people who were willing to help without trying to force something down my throat, but at the same time they stood out, because they were kind, and gentle, and obedient to God and they showed an obvious love for Christians and non-Christians alike.

I have a friend who attends a local Catholic church. While I may have some doctrinal differences with her, she believes Jesus is her Savior, that He died for her and that His atoning death on the Cross paid for her sins and for mine and that He rose from the dead to rule and reign with the Father in Heaven.

She and her husband, in the way they live their lives in faith and in the way that they interact with other people are very real examples of the love of Christ in the hearts of believing people.

It is up to us as believers, not to put on a 'show,' but to live our lives in the love that was so freely given to us, doing everything as if we were doing if for Jesus, with that standard of effort and love, in thankfulness. That is what others are supposed to see.

"We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men," Col 3:23